sexylittlerobot

I love this write up and I love the dedication to democracy, even when it keeps resulting in redundant shirts. I dislike Ramy shirts but such is democracy. :\ Start voting for all the non-Ramy entries and maybe we can get the other fogged designs printed!

viper9

leftielespaul

My, you guys ARE a bunch of haters aren't you. Let me be a rare voice here and say CONGRATULATIONS, ramyb.

It's amusing to me that you guys are so stuck on the fact it shares some similarities with previous shirts created by the artist. The ideas came from the same mind...what do you expect? Complete dissimilarity in each and every piece an artist makes? Artists will often make variations of a similar theme that can be seen spanning multiple works. And I honestly thought it was clever that ramyb even thought to combine their previous themes in such a way to create a shirt fitting for this derby.

Whether its concept is brand new or not, it is obviously one that is well-liked. I see nothing wrong with having shirts that share certain elements.

vivbot

honestly, I'm impressed that the Woot writers are able to come up with such entertaining write-ups for ramyb shirts now without just copying and pasting their older ones and slapping a shiny sticker on them. if I could give you cookies, I would.

bluejester

leftielespaul wrote:My, you guys ARE a bunch of haters aren't you. Let me be a rare voice here and say CONGRATULATIONS, ramyb.

It's amusing to me that you guys are so stuck on the fact it shares some similarities with previous shirts created by the artist. The ideas came from the same mind...what do you expect? Complete dissimilarity in each and every piece an artist makes? Artists will often make variations of a similar theme that can be seen spanning multiple works. And I honestly thought it was clever that ramyb even thought to combine their previous themes in such a way to create a shirt fitting for this derby.

Whether its concept is brand new or not, it is obviously one that is well-liked. I see nothing wrong with having shirts that share certain elements.

Speaking as a former fan of Ramyb's I'll try to make part of the argument as to why this win is frustrating in kinder terms. First, woot has rejected designs, even Ramyb's designs before, when they were similar to shirts already in the reckoning. As far as artists making variations on a theme, I'd point to Walmazan as an excellent example of making variations on a theme. Most of his shirts are antropormorphised food or other everyday objects. Typically he does food, but not always. When he does do "living" food designs, they aren't always variations of one food item giving another food item an ironic boquet (Such as in True Love).

Last point, you are right, there is nothing wrong with having shirts share similar elements. The problem that a good chunk of us here have with this shirt though is that it is so similar to the "Imposter" shirt that it seems like even Ramyb is out of ways to exploit cutesy animals for profit and has hit the proverbial bottom of the barrel and then said, "Hey I've got a great idea! How about this penguin jumps that barrel!"

nowikissyou

I do not get this hate, I really don't. If woot! is a business and makes more money when they cater to the most customers, having the popular vote to pick the winner makes perfect sense.

While I do enjoy the write up and the juicy Internet drama that keeps unfolding, it saddens me that so many of you are swift to dismiss the current democratic process and put up your little mustaches while hailing Sieg Woot! because you are elitist pricks incapable of accepting other people's taste in tshirt art.

benjythebold

Darquis wrote:I'm pretty sure this artist ripped off that guy who did Impostor.

Not sure if someone already replied to this yet cuz it's late and I've got a mid-term paper to finish for later this morning (and some sleep to get somewhere in between now and then) but, sir, please note the other posts intimating that Impostor was a collaborative effort between the artist it is credited to and ramby. It's not a rip off, it's reminiscent of his own work.

Gratz, ramby on another win. "Cute" is OK by me. We can get artsy shirts from a lot of places, and we can get Jatravartid "cute" shirts from lots of places, but w00t is one of the few places where we can get "cute" shirts that are actually intelligent with themes that are personally applicable to many of our lives.

derkis

leftielespaul wrote:My, you guys ARE a bunch of haters aren't you. Let me be a rare voice here and say CONGRATULATIONS, ramyb.

It's amusing to me that you guys are so stuck on the fact it shares some similarities with previous shirts created by the artist. The ideas came from the same mind...what do you expect? Complete dissimilarity in each and every piece an artist makes? Artists will often make variations of a similar theme that can be seen spanning multiple works. And I honestly thought it was clever that ramyb even thought to combine their previous themes in such a way to create a shirt fitting for this derby.

Whether its concept is brand new or not, it is obviously one that is well-liked. I see nothing wrong with having shirts that share certain elements.

"It's amusing to me" that you speak authoritatively about artistic integrity and creativity while simultaneously endorsing ramyb as a collective ("their") whose work is validated by its mass appeal.

For starters, artists typically choose a theme to develop a portfolio of work around because said theme has enough depth to warrant extended exploration, because it is of significant personal interest/significance, and/or because it is a convenient subject for experimenting with personally untested techniques.

Ramyb rehashing his designs for the purposes of commerce demonstrates none of these qualities. His work rarely (if ever) demonstrates any attempt at stylistic derivation, he alone has beaten the "cute animals"/"odd man out" horse to death so many times that I'm afraid the entire species teeters towards extinction, and personally I don't find his affinity for penguins to be a compelling theme. Though I wouldn't blame him for it, I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually care about cute animals and just likes money.

Is ramyb a talented artist? No (sorry, his abilities as a draftsman are lackluster, but that's another post entirely).

Does ramyb produce creative designs, or demonstrate any qualities of a captial-A Artist? No.

Are ramyb's designs both successful and profitable? Undeniably so.

He can keep doing what he's doing, but ramyb is to shirt.woot what Thomas Kinkade is to fine art.

CapSea

benjythebold wrote:Not sure if someone already replied to this yet cuz it's late and I've got a mid-term paper to finish for later this morning (and some sleep to get somewhere in between now and then) but, sir, please note the other posts intimating that Impostor was a collaborative effort between the artist it is credited to and ramby. It's not a rip off, it's reminiscent of his own work.

CapSea

nowikissyou wrote:I do not get this hate, I really don't. If woot! is a business and makes more money when they cater to the most customers, having the popular vote to pick the winner makes perfect sense.

While I do enjoy the write up and the juicy Internet drama that keeps unfolding, it saddens me that so many of you are swift to dismiss the current democratic process and put up your little mustaches while hailing Sieg Woot! because you are elitist pricks incapable of accepting other people's taste in tshirt art.

CapSea

CapSea wrote:This assumes, erroneously, that they wouldn't make as much money printing another shirt.

I'm going to expand on this.

On the Internet, you can create your own market. There are billions of people in the world. All you need is 3000 for a sellout. Woot itself gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a day, and that excludes shirt.woot.

Right now, the people that shop on this site regularly are the ones that like these types of shirts. Those that don't have gone to other websites.

Now, if Woot decided to no longer print a shirt like this, they would initially experience a drop in sales since those that buy this type of shirt won't be buying, and they don't currently have as big a market to sell the more artsy stuff.

But over time, they'd rebuild that artsy market, until eventually it would be large enough that the more artsy shirts sell as much (or at the very least, close enough that it is negligible) as these types of shirts. Other shirt sites that focus on art and get way fewer visitors than woot does sell nearly as many of their good shirts, and that's at a higher price. There are more than enough people that want artsy shirts. They just don't come to woot anymore.

I think there is a place for these types of shirts on woot on rare occasion. Every week is not that occasion.

juhkystar

As much as I love giant headphones and walkmans, for some reason, the right side of the headset just looks like it's misplaced on the penguin's head to me. It's a well made design for sure and I really want to love it for having both PENGUINS and GIANT HEADPHONES but sadly I can't quite ignore that one nitpicky thing that's bugging me. =(

tonymontana444

staffell

nowikissyou wrote:I do not get this hate, I really don't. If woot! is a business and makes more money when they cater to the most customers, having the popular vote to pick the winner makes perfect sense.

I don't hate ramyb, and equally I don't hate woot for realising what makes money. I hate all the people who keep buying this trash. :p

wolfchik

i love the write-up. would have loved the design -if- it had only been the one penguin, the others are unnecessary and just kill it for me.
the penguin in the middle?... i can relate, 'cause i OWN the mohawk and the big headphones. what better way to get people to leave me alone ;)

lostnightsoul

Most times remixes turn trash into treasure. Sadly this is not the case. Sadder still is that this got the most points, and more than likely sellout and being in the top 20 for who knows how many weeks.

thewronggrape

nowikissyou wrote:I do not get this hate, I really don't. If woot! is a business and makes more money when they cater to the most customers, having the popular vote to pick the winner makes perfect sense...[snip]
I hope that you are allowed and encouraged to submit on further derbies, along with everyone else.

Agreed. This shirt isn't my style but obviously enough people like it for it to have taken first place. It's not ramyb's fault that a lot of people like and vote for his designs.

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